Lancastrians of any religion or none are giving up buying plastic for Lent (25 February – 11 April). The challenge is designed to raise awareness of the effect of the ‘throwaway culture’ on human beings and the environment and offers two levels:
Level 1 – no plastic bags, plastic bottles, or takeaway food packaged in plastic – and
Level 2 – no new plastic at all (except for lifesaving plastic e.g. medicine wrappers).
There will be a series of workshops and socials throughout Lent at Lancaster University and in town. More details, including a chance to sign up to the challenge, can be found on www.notoplastic.org.uk.
How much plastic do you throw away each day? Plastic never bio-degrades, so every plastic bag, bottle, and toothbrush you’ve ever used can still be found in a rubbish dump, the sea, or littering our streets and countryside. This debris can also harm wildlife, especially in our oceans, and tiny plastic particles can accumulate and persist up the food-chain.
It is thought that plastics in the food chain are damaging reproduction in mammals by changing hormone balances – no one yet knows what the long term effects on humans of ingesting plastics particles will be.
However, there are simple ways you can reduce or eliminate plastic from your life. Try buying your fruit and vegetables loose rather than pre-packaged, for example.
This challenge was started by two Lancaster University PhD students – Ele Lamb (Linguistics) and Rose Lerner (Physics). Earlier in the year they decided to try giving up plastic for three months. Rose says, “I was getting really fed up of all the plastic I was throwing away – especially when it was obviously not necessary. That’s when I came up with the idea of doing without plastic completely”.
Ele says, “Living without plastic for three months was great. It made me think and helped me lead a simpler life.”
• Those who sign up on the website www.notoplastic.org.uk will receive short emails during Lent with one tip per day on how to reduce or eliminate plastic from their lives.
• There is also a Facebook group:
www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=49386054394&ref=nf